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Simon Ryker (Earth-616)

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History

Simon Ryker was a scientist[5] and a Captain in the United States Army.[2] Ryker was also brother to fellow scientist Harlan Ryker,[3] expert in cybernetics who designed[4] to be sold for military purposes.[6] Captain Simon Ryker himself was also an innovative developer of weaponry, wanting to create the first perfect cyborg soldier to turn war into a logical problem. Ambitiously, Captain Ryker believed civilization to be chaotic, but he also believed that his own genius was enough to restore order.[2]

To this end, Ryker intended to build his cyborg, the Symbionic Man,[7] and obtained some funding from Pentagon, but not enough to get his hands into an energy source that gave authentic life to his creation. Ryker learned that the generators built by Reed Richards were the only ones that could provide enough power, and asked Richards to let him use them; but Richards refused, not seeing the need to create a super-soldier. Ryker decided to develop his own generators, and kept his Symbionic Man submerged in a seething vat of protogen-gel. Ryker hoped to give live to his Symbionic Man, impress his superiors, and receive funding from Washington, D.C. which would him to use his own computers to create perfect soldiers; Ryker believed that government-issued computers were too slow for his purposes. The Pentagon, encouraging Ryker to continue his experiments, gave Ryker a below-decks laboratory on a U.S. Navy ship to find his energy source;[2][5] the ship's mission was to ferry Ryker until he found the energy source he was looking for.[2]

Simon Ryker (Earth-616) from Super-Villain Team-Up Vol 1 4

Ryker as a Captain

Sailing near the Hydrobase,[2] the ship witnessed a confrontation between Doctor Doom and the Sub-Mariner on an atoll.[2][5] The ship's captain had Ryker informed of this. Ryker decided to absorb the energy Doom and the Sub-Mariner generated with his machines. The Sub-Mariner slammed Doom into the boat, breaking the hull above the waterline, and the impact destroyed Ryker's sensors;[2] but Doom blasted the Sub-Mariner out of the sky, and Ryker used that moment to place manual syphons on Doom's head, draining Doom's strength into the vat. However, the sudden surge of energy caused unforeseen explosions[2][5] that damaged both Ryker's computer bank and the Symbionic Man's vat.[5] Enraged, Doom threatened Ryker, and Ryker responded by shooting Doom with a high-tech pistol. Ryker's attack was useless, and Doom lifted him off his feet, throwing him into his own machines and damaging them.[2] In his elation with killing the Sub-Mariner, Doom spared Ryker's life and flew off,[2][5] but Ryker and the sailors watched as the Symbionic Man began to breathe in its basin.[2]

However, damage to the machinery prevented the transfer from being complete, so the Symbionic Man became alive, but Ryker did not classify him as a sentient. This was unsatisfactory for Ryker's purposes. Ryker developed a system for the Symbionic Man to absorb the brain-patterns, strength and power of another being through symbionic contact, and made a hovering saucer-shaped ship called Mother-Craft, equipped with high technology, such as mobile operations base. Ryker used his sensors to track the Sub-Mariner (who had survived his encounter with Doom) to Rapa Nui, and once there he imprinted the Sub-Mariner's brain-waves in his computers, to be able to track the Sub-Mariner anywhere. Ryker then dropped the Symbionic Man into the waters, and his inert body absorbed life and power from the local flora and fauna, becoming not only stronger but also indistinguishable from sea life. The Symbionic Man tracked the Sub-Mariner, while Ryker tracked both of them. Using his monitors, Ryker witnessed their fight, during which the Symbionic Man drained the Sub-Mariner's life and strength—but in the process, the Symbionic Man began to feel the Sub-Mariner's needs and thoughts of him, which caused him an internal turmoil. The Symbionic Man then went after a giant octopus, whose strength it also absorbed, then attacked the Sub-Mariner again. However, during the struggle, the Sub-Mariner threw the octopus as far as possible, and it accidentally crashed into the Mother-Craft, causing it to pummel into the sea. With the destruction of the ship, the Symbionic Man was released from Ryker's control and explained to the Sub-Mariner how he had never wanted to attack; the Symbionic Man returned the Sub-Mariner the stolen power, and died,[7] mistakenly[3] believing that Ryker had died in the shipwreck.[7]

Somehow, Ryker survived[3] and eventually became General of the Army, in charge of Fort Benning, Georgia, a particularly tough Army post where combat maneuvers were frequent. General Ryker had a photo of Captain America and another person (who could be Ryker himself) on his desk.[1] Harlan Ryker asked his brother to help him find military volunteers to be turned into cyborgs; General Ryker offered this possibility to Colonel Luther Manning, but Manning rejected it, believing the idea to be crazy.[3] Harlan would eventually get his Guinea pig in Colonel John Kelly.[8] Colonel Manning later suffered several hallucinations and extraordinary encounters, including a figure who had entered the base without invitation, defeated Kelly, said Kelly should be Deathlok, then disappeared without a trace. Kelly informed Ryker, who threatened to remove Manning from active duty for not being of sound mind, but ultimately decided to demand that Manning undergo a thorough psychiatric examination, even though Ryker knew that Manning was already seeing the base psychiatrist. Manning lost his temper and became violent before leaving Ryker's office, and was teleported to another location shortly after;[1] Manning died before returning.[9]

Personality

Ryker was a serious soldier[1] and an ambitious scientist who demonstrated his willingness to take risks to achieve his goals,[2] although in his arrogance he did not consider the possibility of failure.[7] The sailors who knew him considered him aloof and lacking in cordiality or other apparent feelings, but they were willing to work with him.[2]

Attributes

Abilities

Ryker was an efficient military officer[1] and a brilliant inventor with great skills in engineering and computer science. He developed technologies such as manual siphons to absorb energy even from other devices such as Doctor Doom's Armor,[7] and the method of imprinting brain-waves into his devices to track the person with those waves until that person died.[7]

Paraphernalia

Weapons

Ryker used a high-tech gun, but it proved not to be enough to penetrate Doctor Doom's Armor. Ryker said that he had several weapons linked to his computers, but these were never used.[2]

Transportation

Ryker piloted a hovering saucer called Mother-Craft as his personal vehicle, but it was destroyed.[7]

Notes

  • Captain Simon Ryker is unambiguously identified as an alternate version of Major Simon Ryker of Earth-7484 in a footnote in Super-Villain Team-Up #4. General Ryker is unambiguously identified as Harlan Ryker's brother in Deathlok (Vol. 2) #26 (with Harlan being clearly an alternate version of Harlan from Earth-7484), thus General Ryker is the same person as Captain Ryker. This means that Captain Ryker somehow survived his apparent death in, through unexplained means, and rose in the Army ranks to become a General.

Trivia

  • Ryker's Mother-Craft was not an amphibious vehicle, and it pummeling into the waters was a big problem, enough for Ryker to be believed dead. Considering that Ryker was explicitly chasing the Sub-Mariner through the seas, it's weird for someone as intelligent as Ryker to not have used a vehicle that could handle being underwater.[7]

See Also

Links and References

References

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